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Leveling and tramming small VMC

metalmadness

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Hey all...I hope you can help me. I’m trying to level and tram my Hurco VM10i VMC. It has 6 leveling feet...2 front, 2 back, and 2 where the head travels along Z (about 16/18 inches in from the rear feet)

I followed the Haas video on leveling a VMC and I can’t seem to get this right.

I calibrate my level (SPI 0.0001 / 10” accuracy level).

I can get the machine level. I can remove the twist. I can remove the bow. But when I sweep my indicator, the machine table is not perpendicular to the spindle axis. Test cuts
Prove this theory. It was cutting well before I started messing with it, so I know that this machine is sound and accurate and not damaged or anything.

It’s a 3yr old machine that sees light use so it’s not a structural issue.

Does anyone have a sure fire method or routine for leveling and tramming a head in? Should I leave the middle screws alone? In fact, what do the middle screws do? They are directly under the Z ways so I would assume they handle head tilt.

For reference, the spindle sweep with a 0.0001 indicator on a 12” dia circle is (after leveling):

X- .0002
X+ .0003
Y+ (operator side) -.0002
Y- spindle side .0008
According to Haas the total delta on all 4 measurements should be less than 0.0005.


I for the life of me cannot get this thing trammed and facing good again. I understand that level is just a starting place for perpendicularity, but I’m lost here.

Please help! I don’t want to call my service tech out again and I specifically bought all these tools to NOT have to always call him. Mainly I am practicing on my 3 axis so that I can align the center lines on my 5 axis when they slip out of place every 6 months.

Thanks for helping a “service noob”
 
Hey all...I hope you can help me. I’m trying to level and tram my Hurco VM10i VMC. It has 6 leveling feet...2 front, 2 back, and 2 where the head travels along Z (about 16/18 inches in from the rear feet)

I followed the Haas video on leveling a VMC and I can’t seem to get this right.

I calibrate my level (SPI 0.0001 / 10” accuracy level).

I can get the machine level. I can remove the twist. I can remove the bow. But when I sweep my indicator, the machine table is not perpendicular to the spindle axis. Test cuts
Prove this theory. It was cutting well before I started messing with it, so I know that this machine is sound and accurate and not damaged or anything.

It’s a 3yr old machine that sees light use so it’s not a structural issue.

Does anyone have a sure fire method or routine for leveling and tramming a head in? Should I leave the middle screws alone? In fact, what do the middle screws do? They are directly under the Z ways so I would assume they handle head tilt.

For reference, the spindle sweep with a 0.0001 indicator on a 12” dia circle is (after leveling):

X- .0002
X+ .0003
Y+ (operator side) -.0002
Y- spindle side .0008
According to Haas the total delta on all 4 measurements should be less than 0.0005.


I for the life of me cannot get this thing trammed and facing good again. I understand that level is just a starting place for perpendicularity, but I’m lost here.

Please help! I don’t want to call my service tech out again and I specifically bought all these tools to NOT have to always call him. Mainly I am practicing on my 3 axis so that I can align the center lines on my 5 axis when they slip out of place every 6 months.

Thanks for helping a “service noob”
First of all, using square block, check the perpendicularity between X and Z and Y and Z axes. If these are OK (leading producer's standard is better than 0.00025/12), proceed to check the parallelism between the X and Y movement and the table surface. Then only proceed to spindle sweep check (leading machine tool producer's standard is better than 0.0003/12). If you do not perform the preliminary checks as stated, the results of spindle sweep are meaningless.
 
First of all, using square block, check the perpendicularity between X and Z and Y and Z axes. If these are OK (leading producer's standard is better than 0.00025/12), proceed to check the parallelism between the X and Y movement and the table surface. Then only proceed to spindle sweep check (leading machine tool producer's standard is better than 0.0003/12). If you do not perform the preliminary checks as stated, the results of spindle sweep are meaningless.

OK...so by using the square I can then adjust feet as necessary after seeing how perpendicular and parallel the axes are?
 








 
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